


Irregular Tea Time

by DxTURA



Category: Neopets
Genre: Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 16:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17083445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DxTURA/pseuds/DxTURA
Summary: A Neopets Story written for Lurian‘s Digital Neozine in 2016!





	Irregular Tea Time

The peach colored Shoyru happily flapped her wings as she waltzed up to the counter to get a good look at the most recent customers. “Oh, if it isn’t Jen and the little Kougra darling! Will you two be ordering the usual?”

The tanned human poked two fingers up, smile from cheek to cheek appearing upon her face as she bounced about. “Two Chokato Bubble Teas this time, please! Though, ‘Claw wants extra bubbles in his order!” She was already patting down her dress for the point pouch, “I’ll even pay for it.”

A daily trip to the coffee shop located in the depths of the Art Centre was not uncommon for Jen the Human and her tiny Christmas colored Kougra in the middle of the week. Combined with a shopping trip around the Bazaar and then to the bank to pick up her daily interest in person, the duo felt that heading to the gallery to look at the exhibits would be a good way to relax and take a break from the daily chores. Their frequent visits to the said shop made them recognizable customers to the shopkeeper, though their orders would vary by the visit. If it wasn’t tea they bought, it was coffee – if not coffee, then juice. Sometimes, they would simply pick up teacakes and then head home to have a glass of milk alongside it.

After keeping their order in mind, the Neopet scribbled the order down on her nearby notepad and then gently shooed them away before tending to the next customer. As they waited for their order, the two of them leaned against the wall and started discussing some of the pieces that were on display.

“So, I was looking at that picture on the way out, and I’ve wonder: Whaddaya think sparked that artist to repaint an older photo of his family, J?” The Kougra asked, tail swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

“It’s common with grownup artists, I think!” Jen fixed her dress as she pressed her back against the wall. “Sometimes art feels old to them, and they wanna show how better they became.” A small hum followed her words soon after, “Maybe because it was the first time we’ve ever seen a Bori, too.”

Jen was a young soul – no older than eight, no younger than five. Her onyx hair fell down to her hips, though it was always tied up in a ponytail thanks to her Aisha at home. The child had woken up in Neopia, deep in the depths of the Haunted Woods, after collapsing against what might have been the pavement on her way home from school. Upon stirring awake her blurry vision caught the gaze of a sinister Jetsam, and Jen found her feet practically gliding as she eventually made it way back to Neopia Central. Soon after she recovered the child found herself adopting a lonely looking Kougra from the pound, particularly for protection.

What was once seen as protection soon formed into an inseparable bond, and upon arriving at the pound Jen found herself fall in love at first sight with Declawer (or “’Claw’ for short). He found the idea of accompanying her in travel to be exciting, and left his items in her hands after the human filled out a form that allowed her to take him home. They got along well after sharing pasts with one another, and settling in Neopia Central only seemed to cause their affinity towards one another to skyrocket into the air. Jen took her time and unpacked his items, eventually coming across a journal that would later be an essential part of Jen’s everyday items. The journal contained bits and pieces about Declawer’s past, but judging by how crushed it was beneath other items the Neopet most likely forgot about its existence.

Their conversations between one another were always like this, and it was rare for either of the two to instigate a fight between one another.

“I mean, I _guess_ , but that seems a little redundant…” Declawer tilted his head and shrugged, sitting much closer to the child than he was before. “Wouldn’t it be easier to-“

“ _Jen_!”

The two whipped their heads back to the counter, where the Shoyru was holding the peach and blue colored drinks in their hands – slightly sloshing them back and forth before putting them on the higher part of the stand. Jen took them and passed the drink with extra bubbles to her friend before taking her own in hand.

“Thanks, J!”

“You don’t need to thank me; I’m just doing what I always do.”

Their banter fell silent as they tapped their glasses together and then, in proper unison, took a sip of the drink together. The cool, sweet liquid combined with the foreign sweetness that was the tomato and chocolate mixture from the Chokato and then the gooey sensation that tingled their teeth from the bubbles? It was one of the more flavorful drinks – something Jen typically bought for them when the bitter amalgamate of coffee and sugar was growing to be too much for her. The two let out satisfied sighs, and then looked back to the sudden swarm of eager customers hopping inside.

“There’s more people this week than the last.” She uttered softly.

“And a few older faces,” Declawer said through sips, “I remember that Lenny family!”

“Those Lutari, too.” She pointed to the middle of the line. “Looks like the exhibit was a stimulating today.”

“Yeah…”

‘Claw popped his bubble tea’s top clean off, swirling the tea around before he challenged himself to take as many of the Chokato bubbles in his mouth as he could. In the midst of the swig, however, the feline paused before ashen eyes looked to his owner in curiosity.

“J?”

“Hm?” Her brown eyes gazed back, “What is it, ‘Claw?”

“Do you think I’ll ever meet my family?”

Jen’s radiant beam flattened almost instantaneously upon hearing the inquiry, head turning to see him in a snail-like pace before looking back down to her half-full cup.

She shrugged, “I dunno. Maybe.”

“I mean, all I’ve ever heard about my family were that they were super good at everything they did. They helped Neopia by taking down pesky enemies, too! Like this one time, I remember one of the pound’s keepers telling me that my middle sister is a Meridell Knight! I hear she’s still kicking butt, too, but I’ve never seen her. I’ve never seen either of the two.”

Declawer’s paws tightened its grip a tad tighter than before against the glass, “I just wonder about them, is all; my sisters have to know where I am, right?”

“It doesn’t always work that way…” Jen tucked her hands into her bag, fingers knitting themselves against the journal’s cover as she pressed the item to the farthest part of the satchel. She refused to let the Kougra know that she was very much aware of his past, but at the same time did not want to leave his head spinning either. Digits thrummed against the crumpled pages, but it wasn’t long before the human found a way to conclude her statement.

“Sometimes, families aren’t aware of other parts of their family. Maybe because they never asked about them, or were never told about them,” She shrugged her shoulders, “You never know unless spring up on you, I guess!”

“I suppose…”

Declawer shook his head, the bell on his Santa Hat ringing in their ears as he stopped to take a sip and ponder for a little bit. A minute or two passed before he came up with another question:

“I’m not annoying you with these questions, right?”

“You never are, Claw,” Jen responded, downing the rest of her drink in a few gulps before picking away at the remaining bubbles with her straw, “I just feel bad that I can’t answer all of your questions.”

She could, she just didn’t want to. “Do you have another in mind?”

“Yeah.” Though there was stillness in the inquiry for another moment, “…What about the oldest?”

The human let the cup slip out of her hands immediately after, a squip (what she liked to consider a mixture of a “squeak” and a “pip”) escaping her before she made way to nab the nearest napkins and start to clean up the mess off the floor. It wasn’t a big mess, but she refused to let the store owner clean up after her blunders!

“C-could you repeat that question, Claw?”

“Err… yeah,” Declawer shrugged and watched her hastily wipe the floor clean, “My eldest sister – the first Declawer,” Feline ears flickered as he spoke, “Do you know anything about them?”

Jen didn’t give an immediate response; rather, the child stuck to cleaning up while she formulated words.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t expecting the question to rise anytime soon, but she couldn’t help the dark thoughts that were plaguing her head as the synthetic cloth moved up and down in a rhythmic trance. If there was one set of logs she remembered reading about in the journal, it was the stories of Declawer the First, Defender of Faerieland. She distinctly remembered sitting in her room with the door closed, mind pining for more answers about the child’s bloodline.

It was when she got the answers she wanted that the book was carried with her – yet tucked away from the other at all times.

See, Declawer the First wasn’t just a defender of the Faeries but was a follower of them, too. Painted with lavender and detailed with a mauve-ish hue, Declawer stuck out from the rest of her siblings due to the wings on her back. She bore her shiny chest plate and a sword to swipe down foes with daily, and spent most of her time wandering around the Battledome to challenge opponents – both old _and_ new! She had moxie (it was something the youngest yearned for), was fairly intelligent, and spent her leisure time researching gourmet foods so she could try them on her own accord. The Faerie Kougra was also adamant on helping those in need, frequently donating or parting away with her necessities to charities and local Neopets that really needed the extra help. Essentially, Declawer was an idol to most and an enemy to some; most of her entries simply spoke about her battles or her leisure time with friends.

Though when Jen started to read past all the activities that the eldest sister went on about, it was then that she was starting to have a hard time reading through the entirety of the journal. Soon, the daily entries that had paced curls and easily readable print turned into works that were difficult to read. Most of the ink was smudged, or some of the sentences simply didn’t make sense. Jen initially expected choppy sentences to be grammatical errors, but analyzing each page a little more often than usual made her realize that the Kougra grew frightened.

‘ _Shadow and I went on a new adventure today_ ,’ turned into, ‘ _We have to get out of here_.’

Entries that spoke about what Declawer had for her meals spoke more into detail about how she was beginning to starve.

Dialogues that spoke about how adamant Declawer felt like staying out morphed into an amalgamate of desperate cries to come home. This list went on and on, to the point in which Jen refused to read the entries before bed and stayed at her desk for most of the morning before dashing out with her Neopets to run her errands. She would do her best to study it, though frequently had to resort to a Neopedia or a dictionary to help catalogue newly discovered words into the back of her brain.

When Jen eventually made it to the last entry of the eldest sibling, her final words were the key to sealing the book away at all times.

She could remember it clearly, too, despite the page being so tattered and smudged.

“ _Entr- —:_

_We’ve arrived not too long ago, Shadow and I – captured in enhanced shackles._

_They say He is still harming Grundos;_

_There are claims that the planet is free;_

_They say He won’t return anytime soon;_

_It’s not true—He’s coming._

_I can hear him. He’s coming; is he going to enslave us, too?_

_Regardless-_

_Tell my family that I—_

_Am sorry._ ”

Just thinking about the sheet made the child shiver and yielded tears at the corners of her eyes; the youngest Declawer, however, broke her out of her trance.

“J?”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.” She laughed, picking up the soppy material and throwing it in the nearest bin. She turned around after rubbing her eyes, relaying the positive portions to him – saying that she had heard about her only through the mouths of others. She did her best to make it as believable as possible, which was hard considering the child wasn’t that great of a liar.

The Kougra seemed to accept her answer, “Really?! So they say she might have worked for the Guard?”

“Yes. Though, I don’t know much more than that. People are all talk, ya know; I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything else unless I knew if everything I’ve heard was fact or not.”

The Neopet prodded his toe beans on each paws together, folding his ears back as his tail finally sat still. He had set his cup down, and his gray gaze looked to the floor.

“Do you…” He had a hard time forming words, “Do you know what happened to her? Do you know if she still takes the skies today?”

Jen bit her lip, opening the bag to peek at the slightly covered edges of the journal before locking the bag up tight and shaking her head.

“I wouldn’t know,” She uttered, but in a way she had a feeling that her clues lied in the depths of the Virtupets Space Station.

**Author's Note:**

> (i'm sorry i'm self-insert trash)


End file.
